Table 2 Numeracy scale with percentages answering correctly in two studies
From: A new adaptive testing algorithm for shortening health literacy assessments
| Â | Â | Ancker | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Question | Lipkus et al (n = 463) | on-line (n = 100) | Clinic (n = 62b) | Total (n = 162) |
1. Imagine that we flip a fair coin 1,000 times. What is your best guess about how many times the coin would come up heads? | question not scored a | 74.0 | 66.1 | 71.0 |
2. Which of the following numbers represents the biggest risk of getting a disease? _ 1 in 100, _ 1 in 1000, _1 in 10 | 78.2 | 81.0 | 54.8 | 71.0 |
3. Which of the following numbers represents the biggest risk of getting a disease? _ 1%, _ 10%, _ 5% | 83.8 | 92.0 | 80.6 | 87.7 |
4. If Person A's risk of getting a disease is 1% in ten years, and person B's risk is double that of A's, what is B's risk? | 90.5 | 96.0 | 71.0 | 86.4 |
If Person A's chance of getting a disease is 1 in 100 in ten years, and person B's risk is double that of A's, what is B's risk? | 86.6 | question not used | ||
5. If the chance of getting a disease is 10%, how many people would be expected to get the disease out of 100? | 80.8 | 95.0 | 67.7 | 84.6 |
6. If the chance of getting a disease is 10%, how many people would be expected to get the disease out of 1000? | 77.5 | 89.0 | 61.3 | 78.4 |
7. If the chance of getting a disease is 20 out of 100, this would be the same as having a ____% chance of getting the disease. | 70.4 | 94.0 | 53.4 | 78.4 |
8. The chance of getting a viral infection is .0005. Out of 10,000 people, about how many of them are expected to get infected? | 48.6 | 60.0 | 32.3 | 49.4 |